Queen Ingrid Hospital, Greenland

Go with the floe...

First stage of Queen Ingrid’s Hospital modernisation in Greenland opened

An abstract new Health Centre was opened yesterday in Nuuk, Greenland marking the completion of the first phase of a vast project to rejuvenate the original Queen Ingrid Hospital. Completed in 1980, the main hospital complex is outdated and insufficient for the needs of the local community. General plans drawn up by C. F. Møller outline a new emergency operation centre and reception, intensive care unit and diagnosis beds providing a simple and explicit orientation system and the necessary elements for rapid diagnosis.

Plans also include the construction of a psychiatric building, rural pharmacy and new medical clinic for general practitioners. Additional beds will be provided by a circular patient ‘hotel’, affording stunning views across the picturesque natural scenery including Sanabugten and fjords. This rugged landscape had an acute inspirational effect on C. F. Møller, whose recently completed Health Centre and Pharmacy take the form of sunken angular blocks clad in copper both on the facades and roof. The practice compares the tilted building structures to the ice floes that float in Godthåbsfjord and the image of Greenland’s highest mountain, Sermitsiaq.

The Health Centre provides comprehensive facilities for the community of Nuuk, with future plans for the Queen Ingrid’s Hospital promising specialised treatment for Greenland as a whole. The country’s Health Minister, Agathe Fontain and architect/planner Klavs Hyttel of C. F. Møller attended the official inauguration yesterday afternoon, opening the unique complex as the first step towards a new future for Greenland’s health services.